“Shelly is trying to address the issue seriously. I think he understands we have made enormous amounts of progress and we’re not going to go back,” Bloomberg said during an event at Department of Education headquarters.

The mayor also applauded Assembly Education Committee Chairwoman Cathy Nolan (D-Queens) for making a good-faith effort to forge a “compromise” on the soon-to-expire law.

“I think everyone understands the schools are going in the right direction. The English scores were off the charts,” Bloomberg said, referring to recent state test results.

Overseeing a public school system that is 71 percent black and Latino, Bloomberg also seems to be trying to win over minority lawmakers.

He pointed that out under his watch, the city schools have chipped away at the performance gap separating black and Latino students and white and Asian kids.

“We are closing the gap with the state and closing the ethnicity gap,” Bloomberg said.

The 2002 state law that abolished the Board of Education and gave the mayor authority to run the schools expires June 30. Silver and Nolan sketched out a plan to fellow Democrats at a closed-door conference Tuesday night to extend the law with some adjustments.

“Shelly and his members and the state Senate and the then-governor [George Pataki] all deserve credit. They were, if you go back seven years, the ones that gave us mayoral control,” Bloomberg said.

“So the fact that schools are so much better and kids are getting a better education, they should be beaming,” Bloomberg added. “They should take a lot of credit for this.”

Silver’s plan, which is subject to revisions, would continue to allow the mayor to hire the schools chancellor and make a majority of appointments to the Panel on Education Policy. But two of his appointees would have to be parents, which is currently not a requirement.

The chancellor would no longer serve as board chairman. Instead, the board members would appoint the chair of PEP.

Under the Silver proposal, the policy board would vote on more contracts as well as policy issues. A source said it would require board approval for contracts over $200,000, a level a city insider said was too low.

The blueprint also would provide more oversight by the Independent Budget Office and city comptroller, and require 45 days’ prior written notice before any school closings.

The developing plan emphasized greater roles for school district superintendents and parents, but provided little detail.

Assemblyman Mark Weprin (D-Queens) wants superintendents to oversee principals in their district and hear grievances from parents.

Silver yesterday sought to downplay the blueprint as merely a starting point in preliminary discussions.

“This is an evolving process. It will not be resolved conference-wise or legislatively for a few weeks,” he said.

Silver said a better mechanism to hear parental grievances has to be crafted before a deal is reached on mayoral control.

But City Hall and Albany insiders said the fact that Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith are on the same page is a positive sign.